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Tom Trevatt of www.tomtrevatt.com and I have been exchanging emails since 2021, when he completed the little questionnaire on the PhotoBizX website to receive some personalised interview suggestions.
At the time, he was into headshot photography, working part-time as a photographer, and looking to attract more clients.
In 2022, he told me, “Business was going well. I’ve had quite a profitable few months and am considering moving into a much bigger studio – it’ll be a big move and quite expensive, but I think it will be worth it in the long term.”
Two years later, in 2024, I heard another update from Tom…
I have now had two decent studios in central London and have grown the business to six figures. However, right now I am in the process of building out a small home studio to replace the separate studio, as I want to keep more of the revenue I make rather than let my studio landlord have it!
I have also decided to drop below the VAT threshold of £90k for this next year or two in order to grow the business's reputation without such a massive tax liability.
For me, this business was never about trying to make as much money as possible but about giving me the kind of life I want to lead—for the time being, that's perfectly possible under 90k.
Finally, in 2025, I had this update from Tom, “At the end of last year, I secured a contract to photograph 530 lawyers at a global law firm, and it has had a life and business-changing impact. The contract itself is worth over £200k and will likely include ongoing updates to pick up the new hires every month, so over the next few years, the value of this one customer may exceed half a million!”
So, within the first two months of the year, I’ve smashed past that VAT threshold of 90k and am careening towards a turnover this year of £300k or more, which is wild to me.
In this interview, Tom shares how a $200k contract changed everything in his headshot photography business.
Here's some more of what we covered in the interview:
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At the end of last year, I secured a contract to photograph 530 lawyers at a global law firm, and it has had a life and business changing impact. The contract itself is worth over 200,000 pounds and will likely include ongoing updates to pick up new hires every month. So over the next few years, the value of this one customer may exceed half a million pounds. So within the first two months of the year, I've smashed past the VAT threshold of 90k and I'm careening towards a turnover this year of over 300,000 pounds, which is wild to me. – Tom Trevatt
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The about me or about us page of a website can be and should be thought of as a marketing opportunity. – Tom Trevatt
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What is your big takeaway?
Following this interview, I’d love to know if you're taking anything from what Tom shared. Is there something you heard that excited or motivated you to the point where you thought, yeah, I'm going to do that! If so, leave your thoughts in the comments below; let me know your takeaways and what you plan to implement in your business based on what you heard in today's episode.
For me, this business was never about trying to make as much money as possible, but about giving me the kind of life I want to lead for the time being that's perfectly possible under 90k. – Tom Trevatt
If you have any questions I missed, a specific question you’d like to ask Tom, or a way to thank you for coming on the show, feel free to add them in the comments area below.
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This live 2-part training is made for photographers who want to:
Feel confident on sales calls (even if you hate the phone)
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Session 2: Thursday May 22 @ 8am AEST
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(You’ve heard John on the podcast. Now he’s teaming up with me to show you exactly how he does it.)
This live training is made for photographers who want to:
Turn “just digitals” into wall art buyers
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iTunes Reviews and Shout-outs
I check for any new iTunes or Google reviews each week, and it's always a buzz to receive these… for several reasons.
Firstly, it's confirmation that I'm on the right track with the interviews and that they are helping you improve your photography business. That's awesome!
Secondly, iTunes and Google are the most significant podcast search engines, and your reviews and ratings help other photographers find PhotoBizX. More listeners mean more interviews and, ultimately, a better show.
I've now had two decent studios in central London and have grown the business to six figures. However, right now, I'm in the process of building out a small home studio… I've also decided to drop below the VAT threshold… for the next year or two, in order to grow the reputation of the business without such a massive tax liability. – Tom Trevatt
If you have left a review in the past, thank you! If you haven't and you'd like to, head to https://photobizx.com/itunes or https://photobizx.com/google. You can leave some honest feedback and a rating, which will help me and the show. I'll be sure to thank you on the show and add a link to your website or blog if you let me know the URL of your website and your name.
Alternatively, if you've left a review for PhotoBizX and are looking for more backlinks to help your SEO, leave a review for the new Photography Xperiment Podcast. Email me your keywords or phrases and where you'd like me to link them.
The way that Google looks at the website is that it is useful to a person interested in what I'm talking about… as far as I understand, the way the SEO works these days is that it's trying as best as it can to rank websites that are good for a person to look at, not for a robot to look at. – Tom Trevatt
Another great way to get a backlink to your site is to send a video testimonial. It doesn't need to be fancy, and your phone will be perfect. Click record and tell me how PhotoBizX has impacted you and your photography business.
Here is the latest review…
★★★★★ Love This Podcast and Andrew's Emails
Via Google Reviews by Oklahoma family and newborn photographer Charis Kaufman in the USA on May 16th, 2025.
Love this podcast and Andrew's emails so much. He is an encouraging and inquisitive interviewer. I appreciate how he asks so many questions and gets into the nitty gritty of things.
Very educational and helpful, and the interviews of all genres give lots of good info for any photographer.
Links to people, places and things mentioned in this episode:
362: Tony Taafe – Build a profitable headshot photography business by allowing clients to spend more
564: Matt Badenoch – Follow your street photography passion as a working wedding photographer
You've got to have a content channel, whatever that content channel is, you've got to be fully on board with some kind of content channel. – Tom Trevatt
Thank you!
Big thanks to Tom for coming on the show and being so generous with his time and story. It’s been a real privilege to follow his journey over the past few years—from that first email to where he is now. I hope the interview was packed with takeaways and ideas for you to use in your own photography business.
You can get good photographs in a short amount of time, but you don't get beautiful, insightful or communicative photographs in that time. And what I really care about is building people's career opportunities. – Tom Trevatt
That’s it for me this week; I hope everything is going well for you in life and business!
Episode Transcript
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617: Tom Trevatt - How a $200k Contract Changed Everything in His Headshot Business
Andrew Hellmich: Today's guest and I have been exchanging emails since 2021 when he completed the little questionnaire on the PhotobizX website to receive some personalized interview suggestions. Now, at the time, he was into headshot photography, working part time as a photographer, and looking to attract more clients. Then in 2022, a year later, he told me, business was going well. He said, at the time, "I've had quite a profitable few months, and I'm considering moving into a much bigger studio. It'll be a big move and quite expensive, but I think it'll be worth it in the long term". Two years later, in 2024 I heard another update. He said, "I've now had two decent studios in central London and have grown the business to six figures. However, right now, I'm in the process of building out a small home studio to replace the separate studio, as I want to keep more of the revenue I make, rather than let my studio landlord have it, I've also decided to drop below the VAT threshold, that's the tax threshold of 90,000 pounds, for the next year or two, in order to grow the reputation of the business without such a massive tax liability". And he said, which I loved, "For me, this business was never about trying to make as much money as possible, but about giving me the kind of life I want to lead for the time being that's perfectly possible under 90k", and finally, in 2025 this year, I had this update from Tom. "At the end of last year, I secured a contract to photograph 530 lawyers at a global law firm, and it has had a life and business changing impact. The contract itself is worth over 200,000 pounds and will likely include ongoing updates to pick up new hires every month. So over the next few years, the value of this one customer may exceed half a million pounds. So within the first two months of the year, I've smashed past the VAT threshold of 90k and I'm careening towards a turnover this year of over 300,000 pounds", which is wild to me. I'm talking about the super talented and very busy Tom Trevatt, and I'm rapt to have him with us now. Tom, welcome.
Tom Trevatt: Andrew, thank you very much for having me. It's been a long time coming. We've been exchanging emails for a while. I think you were the, probably the first podcast that I started listening to when I started my photography journey. And I still listen, at least, well, nearly every week, still to what you're putting out. And it's really fantastic. I think the major reason why I've enjoyed listening to what you do is because I listen to success stories. I hear people being successful from all over the world in this kind of, well, not just obviously portraiture, headshot photography, of course, there's wedding photographers, there's other sorts of photographers, pet photographers, who seem to have a lot of, and it's great just to hear kind of people have levels of success that you just didn't think possible before you stepped into this industry. So it's great to have that kind of experience. So thank you.
Andrew Hellmich: That's so good. Did you feel that, or did you have the impression that it was even harder in the UK than, say, in America or in in Australia?
Tom Trevatt: Yeah, I think so, certainly, from people I speak to, the environment feels very different. I've got a lot of contacts all around the world in the headshot game, mostly in the States and, well, North America, so the United States and Canada. And certainly, it feels a little bit easier to make kind of the large figures in North America than it does in the UK. Not really sure about Australia. It's a little bit of an unknown quantity to me. But yeah, certainly there are studios doing very well in the UK, but I think there's a lot of people not doing exceptionally, exceptionally well, if that makes sense, it could be to do with location potentially.
Andrew Hellmich: Well, yeah, that's interesting. So when you hear an interview with, say, a successful headshot photographer based in the US or in Canada. Do you automatically, are you thinking, "Oh, well, no wonder they're successful, they're in the States"?
Tom Trevatt: To some extent. But I mean, one of the reasons why I think they're successful in the States is because people, like people who work in a kind of corporate environment or business environment in the US, recognize they need photographs of themselves, and they need very professionally taken photographs themselves. And so, you know, you pop onto a website of, let's say, a law firm, and they've all got their very sort of smiley, toothy grins, very well taken, well-lit photographs. It's not always the case in the UK. I go on to, you know, I was on a very, very sort of website of a VFX company that's at the top of their game the other day. We're having, I was having a call with them, and I was looking at their headshots, and at least three of the senior management team were photographs taken with iPhones, you know, selfies against a white wall. And it just, it feels like that wouldn't lie in the States. So probably there's a, there's a kind of a greater level of value given to the kind of professionalized image.
Andrew Hellmich: So with that particular website that, do you say VFX? Is that Video FX?
Tom Trevatt: So, yeah, like, kind of, if you imagine a CGI scene in a big film, they do that. So they're the kind of top of their game.
Andrew Hellmich: Right. Big company, okay. So were you employed to photograph the heads, or were you just on their website?
Tom Trevatt: I was having a phone call with them as a kind of inquiry before I submitted a quote.
Andrew Hellmich: Okay. So did you, or did you find out why they're asking for new headshots now? Or did they get some bad feedback or something?
Tom Trevatt: Maybe they got some bad feedback, one of the things I always say to them when I have these kind of conversations, is that the About Me or About Us page of a website can be and should be thought of as a marketing opportunity, because it tells a story about who the people are that work in that company. Tell the story about, you know, what type of person you might be working with, doesn't tell a very good story if it's just a iPhone selfie, does it? So, you know.
Andrew Hellmich: Agree, agree. Mate, let me take you back to 20. When did you start? Was it 2019, did you say?
Tom Trevatt: Uh, no, I started just in the middle of the pandemic. So I finished my PhD in 2020. Right as we hit the first lockdown here in the UK. I submitted my PhD, and at that time, I'd been DJing as a side hustle, and I was like, "What the hell am I going to do with my next six months to year, however long?" And because I'd done a Photography Art Foundation over 20 years previously, I was like, "Well, maybe photography is something I can do". Picked up a camera and started going out and doing street photography the first year, obviously, we're all in lockdown. You can't, you know, do any kind of people into a studio or close proximity. So, you know, empty streets look quite fun and interesting that someone has just got them with their hands on a new camera. So, yeah, I spent a year doing that, and then the following year, in May 2021, I opened up the business, really.
Andrew Hellmich: And what was the PhD in?
Tom Trevatt: Art. Art and Politics.
Andrew Hellmich: Well, okay, so did you, I mean, did you foresee a career in that line of work?
Tom Trevatt: I started my PhD with the idea that I was going to go into academia, and I still am. I teach at university, and I've taught at the University. I teach out, which is Goldsmiths in London. I've taught there for 12 years, 13 years, and have taught in total somewhere in the region of 17-18, years in total, in universities. And I love it. It's fantastic. It's just that from the start of my PhD to the end of my PhD, the landscape of academia changed quite drastically in the UK. A lot of universities lost funding, lots of funding cuts, various different kind of mismanagement. My university in particular, has been pretty badly managed. I don't want to get into it because it's a long conversation, but the landscape changed so significantly that I recognized that there wasn't really an opportunity to make a career in academia in the way that there had been maybe a decade previously. So I made the decision that I would stay in academia, but it would just become something that was something like it feels almost like a hobby now, which is hilarious, because I've done a BA, an MA and a PhD, and now teaching at university feels a little bit like a hobby, but what it means is that I've got this kind of other thing I love doing that takes me a little bit away from the photography, but the photography supports my life financially. I don't have to worry about academia being the place that I get the money from.
Andrew Hellmich: So where do you get to be creative? Is it in academia or the photography?
Andrew Hellmich: Okay, that's nice. So you do you feel like, like with your photography business, I mean, it sounds like it's hugely successful, and we'll get into that, but it's, I mean, it's a real business. Do you feel like a business operator, or do you feel like a photographer?
Tom Trevatt: A bit of both. I think, without really planning it this way, I have got very interested in, "How do you market a business? How do you run a business? How do you build a brand? How do you build an identity?". You know, those kinds of things, partly because listening to you interview these amazing guests, week in, week out. But also, you know, I think probably every week since I started, I would watch, listen to read multiple things about running businesses and marketing and branding and so on. This year is the year that I get on top of the finances. So I actually just started working with an amazing business coach, and she is helping me with all the kind of, you know, understanding all of the kind of tax and finance aspects of running a business, which has been, because it's not stuff you really kind of get taught. And obviously, when you're there by yourself, you're like, "Well, I don't really want to look at the numbers stuff. I want to look at all the fun things, like, how do I market my company?". So yeah, I do feel like I'm running a business, but at the same time, like, the thing I get most excited about is taking beautiful photographs.
Andrew Hellmich: Right. And we haven't really talked about your photography, but I mean, I look at your Instagram feed and even your website, to some extent, but particularly your Instagram feed, where it looks like you're adding sort of more of your creative or artistic work that are still headshots, and the work is absolutely fantastic, like it's you come across as a true photographer when I look at that feed, whereas when I look at some headshot photography business websites, it's very corporatized. They look fantastic, they're well lit, they're beautiful, but I wouldn't say they're overly creative, where your headshots on your Instagram and some of your website are. So do you feel like you purposely broken away from that traditional headshot photographer mold?
Tom Trevatt: Yeah, I think so, to some extent. I feel the way that I've done this is somewhat purposeful. On the one hand, it's to fulfill my need, creative need, you know, I don't want to say that I take photographs that look like cardboard cutouts or whatever. And, you know, I want to take photographs that people feel something about when they look at, whether that's of themselves or whether that's of other people. And, you know, I want to create kind of connections with those photographs. So there's a story that comes out of it by doing these things. And yeah, you know, a lot of the work that I've been doing recently, over the past couple of months, has been even more creative. I've been sort of throwing movement in there, and some kind of things that could be like, close to dance photography, those kinds of things, mostly just to satisfy that kind of creative itch that we all have, and I've got the capacity to do so, you know, I don't show on the Instagram, certainly, I don't show any of the corporate work that I do, because Instagram feels to me to be a kind of more of a scrapbook, notebook kind of place, rather than necessarily trying to sell, you know, "This is the thing that I can do for you", and maybe more artists and creative types follow me on Instagram like actors. So, you know, a good portion of my clients are actors. You know, 50% of my clients are actors. The other 50% are kind of, you know, creative business owners, public speakers, lecturers, writers, therapists, those kinds of things. So they also like the creative side of the photography. You know, they come to me because of that.
Andrew Hellmich: Right. But is there any fear then that say the law firm that I mentioned in the intro, which sounds like a huge contract, a huge opportunity for you. Is there any fear that you know, a company like that comes to your website and says, "Oh, this guy's a bit left to feel like he's almost a bit too arty for us?".
Tom Trevatt: Yeah, it's possible. I mean, you know..
Andrew Hellmich: I mean, obviously they didn't.
Tom Trevatt: Yeah. I mean, they hired me for their own reasons, and I know that the person who was taking some photographs for them the year before me was a fashion photographer who had, like, a massive outfit, you know, like, I don't know, like a 10 person strong team going in there, and that was, I think, for them, they wanted something that felt a bit creative, but that was maybe overkill. So they came to me, and it's like, my team's like a three person strong team with me, my assistants and hair and makeup. And it's like, that's all you really need.
Andrew Hellmich: Since can't be, I mean, it sounds like they invest a lot in photography, if they've only had their headshots done two or months ago. Now they're bringing you in to do the same.
Tom Trevatt: So they had a kind of test session with a small number of their team previously, and then reassessed, and then brought me in. So they hadn't got the kind of full gamut of the whole team taken at that point. I think maybe 15 people were photographed previously, and then they changed their mind. I don't know the story. I just know that there was somebody else before me, so it gives me some inclination that they actually wanted to be creative, because they were hiring people who were more creative, rather than the kind of your kind of corporate style headshot photographer.
Andrew Hellmich: But that being said, that is not every company.
Tom Trevatt: Sure, sure, like you know, 90% of the people who call me, they say they want something a little bit creative, but when the quote comes in, they don't reply, you know. You know what's probably happened.
Andrew Hellmich: Yes. All right, we'll explore a little bit more with pricing in a minute. You mentioned there that you know 50% of your clients are made up of actors, and I think other creators, you said. I was under the impression I hear from other headshot photographers that actors are a terrible target market to go after because they've got no money. Have you found the opposite?
Tom Trevatt: I mean, there's an awful lot of hedgehog photographers in London specializing in actors. Obviously, London's a very, very big market for that, but I wouldn't say they've got no money. I mean, I would say that they're motivated to get good quality work, because they recognize that they can make or break their career based on a small handful of so called marketing collateral. So one of the most important thing being their headshot. So I think that you know, if someone comes to me, they recognize that they are spending a bit of, you know, quite a chunk of change, really. It's not your kind of "Come in for 50 minutes, change your T shirt twice, and bug off", kind of thing. You know, my sessions are long. So the actor market ebbs and flows. And I'm part of a WhatsApp group that's full of headshot photographers, and we've been talking about how the actor market has dropped off recently, and that is due to a lot of factors, you know. Various streaming services apparently have cut their budgets. You know, there was a SAG-AFTRA strikes. There's been all sorts of, sort of changes in the US, and that does have an impact on what's happening over here as well. And of course, yeah, like, a very, very large percentage of actors are working in McDonald's or whatever, to, you know, make ends meet, while they become successful. But at the same time, a lot of my clients are in shows. They're in some form of production, you know, they're coming to me, and then they're going straight away after this to do a stage production of something, so they're working, you know, I don't think it's as bleak as maybe it might seem from the outside.
Andrew Hellmich: And again, I mean, I'm guilty of this because I've interviewed so many headshot photographers based in the US. Maybe it's more in the US that I see that or I get that feeling. But yeah, certainly sounds different from your side.
Tom Trevatt: I think that might just be that. If you run a business, you can put it on the company credit card, you know, or, you know, if you run a business, you recognize what marketing spend is, you know. You and I, we can sit there and you can say, "Okay, I can rationalize spending X amount of money on this new piece of whatever it is, because it means that it helps my business." But with somebody who's, you know, two years into acting, or straight out of university, or whatever it is, it's not quite the same rationalization process. They know they need to get headshots, but they don't necessarily go, "Okay, what's the step between a getting a good headshot and getting that role? Is this photographer as good as this photographer? “Maybe. You know, whereas you know, you might say, "Actually, there are." Yeah, you might say that there's some kind of benefit from working with somebody that is, you know, from what I would suggest is that people look at the way that your values overlap. And, you know, let's say someone comes to my website, and they go, "Oh, I really like the way that that person, you know, he works with them for a long period of time, rather than just for like, an hour and a half or whatever." So, yeah, I don't know, I don't know if I've seen but I saw a drop off a little bit at the end of last year, but it seems to have picked up a little bit again this year.
Andrew Hellmich: Ebbs and flows.
Tom Trevatt: I couldn't tell you exactly. It's difficult to get a real, real clear overview of the entire industry just from being one tiny little portion of it.
Sure, sure. Let me ask you about the VAT threshold. And like we all have different tax thresholds in the countries that we live in, but the UK VAT threshold seems to be a little bit more severe. There's so many photographers out there that I've interviewed that like they're desperately doing everything they can to be as close to the threshold without going over it so and I think in the intro and you told me that it's 90,000 pounds, the way I understand it, which is sounds crazy to me, is that if you go over 90,000 pounds, then you're taxed on everything you made, including up to that 90,000 pounds.
Andrew Hellmich: Rather than just everything above it, is that right?
Yes. So unlike other forms of taxation, where it is kind of over the threshold taxation with VAT, it's once you hit that threshold, you get taxed on everything. This is not financial advice.
Andrew Hellmich: Sure, sure.
Tom Trevatt: I'm not a tax consultant, and my knowledge of this is not as good as it possibly could be, but yeah, you are kind of clear of VAT up until that 90 and then after that, you do have to pay 20% on everything. Obviously, what VAT is is essentially moving money around, because then obviously, once you become VAT registered, you can claim VAT back off your purchases, but you're still paying a significant amount of tax. It might end up being less than 20% because you're able to claw back some of it from, say, buying a computer, buying a camera, those kinds of things. But it is a very frustrating and it's a flat tax as well. It's not a progressive tax. It doesn't go up like 5% 10% 15% it goes straight from zero to 20, which is a frustrating leap. So you need to go from 90 to 150k in a big leap.
Andrew Hellmich: 150, why not just 110?
Tom Trevatt: To make sense of the kind of the difference in those two, those two figures, it feels to me like you'd have to have that significant jump, because you'd almost be working, it's almost like a figure way. It's like, "Oh, I could, I could go to 110 but then I'm just getting the same money for, you know, 20% more work. So why not put in 50% more work and get to that kind of the slightly better figure where you're taking home a bit more money?" I guess it's one of those calculations or juggles that we all do at some point and we make decisions whether we're going to go above it or not, and I had chosen not to, until I got this good contract.
Andrew Hellmich: Right. So it's just interesting to hear you voice what you just said, because in my head, I'm thinking, "Okay, I've just got to get to 110, which is a stretch, but it's not a massive stretch from 90".
Andrew Hellmich: But in your head, you're thinking, "I've got to get to 150 to really make it worthwhile."
Tom Trevatt: To make the extra effort worthwhile, I think you have to kind of, 150 is not a hard and fast number. It was just a figure I had kind of in my head when I was doing the calculations. That was like, "Well, then yeah, okay, I can afford to continue running the business in exactly the same way as I was doing before, having the studio and those kinds of things." But yeah, 110 yes, but to really, kind of get the benefit out of that jump, you want to go a little bit higher I think.
Andrew Hellmich: Yeah, that makes sense. So in my head, I was thinking, "Okay, anything over 110 is cream. But really, I mean, to get to 150 you're talking about staff, probably more premises like, it is a big jump, isn't it?
Tom Trevatt: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it's a, yeah, it's another kind of 50% on top of what you're doing at the moment, but not unachievable with a little ratcheting up of, you know, various things. Interesting, talking about staff I had bought on just before I got this big contract. I'd bought on a studio manager. She wasn't part of the conversations that led to this big contract, but her role had specifically been, she been brought on for was outreach, to reach out to these large corporations. Because, you know, it's all very well kind of saying, "I'll just be there on Google, and they can find me, and they can contact me", but unless they know that you exist, you know you can be left, left in the dust. And so her role was to reach out to these large firms, and she actually put a list together of these, like, 100 of these. Like, you know, she did a law degree, so she's got a bit of a kind of background in law, and she put together a list all these firms. And I called her up, like, you know, two weeks after she'd kind of started putting this list together, like, "By the way, this company just called me. They're on your list. Do you know them?" She's like, "Oh, yeah", you know, "Damn yes, they are." They're part of what's called, in the law parlance, the magic circle, or something like the top kind of four or five law firms in the country. So, yeah, she was blown away by that as well. She insisted that she manifested it.
Andrew Hellmich: So did you actively target that particular law firm, or was that just purely by happenstance?
Tom Trevatt: No, no, just completely by happenstance, yeah.
Andrew Hellmich: So someone in their firm came across your website, or was it a referral? Or do you know how you got the inquiry?
Tom Trevatt: I'm number one on Google if you type in 'London headshot photographer', I ranked number one. So I presume that they came across the website that way, they probably would have contacted other photographers as well, but we had a nice phone call and hit it off. So got the contract.
Andrew Hellmich: Okay, that was a bit of a show stopping statement there. How did you get London headshot photographer to rank one? How are you ranking number one in Google for that? What have you done?
Tom Trevatt: I have done a podcast.
Andrew Hellmich: Right. So was this strategic? Were you going after that keyword phrase, and did you know the competition you would be facing?
Tom Trevatt: To a degree, yeah, so I had written, I'd done my website, I'd done all the kind technical SEO on the back end. So it's a Squarespace website, so it's very, you know, straightforward kind of stuff. I've done all the technical SEO, and then I knew that I needed content. That was the only way, really that you're going to get either content or backlinks. And I didn't really fancy going through and trying to get loads of backlinks from people and those sorts of things. So it was the content route. And it feels to me that the content route is a little bit more productive in terms of getting that placement on Google. But at the same time, it's also, I like it, I like the kind of interactions that you can have with people, all the kinds of you know, the way that content actually does feed people into your community, into your circle. So yeah, I put together 10 episodes of a podcast, put it out, and within a few months, I've gone from page three, you know, good page two now and again, to ranking number one by being like, two months after the last podcast came out.
Andrew Hellmich: Absolutely amazing, mate. So a couple of questions on that. First of all, have you seen a massive change to the number of inquiries since you started ranking number one.
Tom Trevatt: I think that the ranking number one coincided with a massive dip in the market, yeah.
Andrew Hellmich: Great timing.
Tom Trevatt: So, yeah, really, really, great timing. Everyone was saying the end of last year was incredibly slow, but this year has, I've definitely seen, since New Year, I've seen a larger increase in the number of inquiries. It's got to the point where I'm struggling a little bit to keep on top of the admin, hence why the studio manager is coming on board. So, you know, obviously right now, because I've got that law firm job and I've kind of booked out the calendar two months in advance with individual shoots. I'm at the point now where I can't take on any more work until mid June, which is a nice place to be, but it also means I've got to kind of field those kinds of emails which are like, "Oh, I really want to work with you. Have you got an opportunity to work in with, you know, the next two weeks?" I'm like, can she wait till June? You know, those kind of conversations so.
Andrew Hellmich: And just for the listener, we're recording in mid April.
Andrew Hellmich: So you're booked out the rest of April, all of May, and you've got till mid-June?
Andrew Hellmich: Wow, fantastic. That's a great place to be.
Tom Trevatt: There's also a holiday or tournaments for all of that as well.
Andrew Hellmich: Great. So it's good you still have the lifestyle that you were trying to create.
Tom Trevatt: Exactly. Yeah.
Andrew Hellmich: Yeah, that is good. A couple of things, so with the podcast, it's not predominantly headshot photographers. You're not only talking about headshot photography, it's actually it's called Photography Adjacent. You're talking to photographers, artists, writers like, so that content. So how's that helping you rank for headshot photographer London?
Tom Trevatt: My feeling about this is, is the way that Google looks at the website is that it is useful to a person interested in what I'm talking about. And so if they can click through onto a number of different pages and find some information, there's a lot of things pointing towards that website, in terms of, you know, YouTube videos, Spotify, Apple podcasts, they're pointing towards the website. But as far as I understand, the way the SEO works these days is that it's trying as best as it can to rank websites that are good for a person to look at, not for a robot to look at. So if the content is engaging to a person, is written in an engaging way, is posed in a way that people want to read it and read more, then they're more likely to stay on that page and get more information out of it. And so I guess that having video, audio and the transcripts from the podcast on the website, that all builds towards having, you know, better SEO. And if I'm honest, what SEO is just competition against a handful of people in your space, and I'm out competing people on content production is what's happening, essentially.
Andrew Hellmich: Right. And because you're recording regularly, you're posting new content regularly, all that looks great to Google.
Andrew Hellmich: And this was obviously a strategy in your head when you were planning this strategy. Did you originally think this is going to be better, if I interview headshot photographers, talk about headshot photography like, was that? Because, to me, that will be the easy..
Andrew Hellmich: ..that's the low hanging fruit. That's going to definitely work in my head. Yeah, were you thinking the same?
Tom Trevatt: I mean, it certainly would have worked, but it's worked without having to do that.
Andrew Hellmich: But was that a gamble?
Tom Trevatt: It was a gamble in the sense that, on the one hand, I want to speak to a much wider group of people for my own benefit, because I think that if I can learn from a fashion photographer or a photography journalist or a photo editor, and I can learn something from them, then people coming to the website to listen to the podcast can learn something as well, whatever type of photographer they are. So rather than just speaking only to headshot photographers, because we're all photographers that draw inspiration from all types of photography, or all types of art, all types of cultural production, right? So if I can speak to people in those kinds of wider spheres, then I can provide something that both I get a lot of education, enjoyment, fun, you know, passionate engagement with, and so can the people who are coming to the website. So if it was just about headshot photography, I think I'd probably get bored after a season. Yeah, but if it's about all the other things, then it's got longevity and it's got kind of me being excited about it, so.
Andrew Hellmich: Okay, I love what you've done and I love why you're doing it, but what is surprising to me is these interviews aren't recorded for your ideal clients so much. They're really created for photographers or other artists. I mean, I don't see your lawyers coming to your website, looking for headshot, and then listening to the podcast.
Tom Trevatt: No, I do have some guests lined up who might be helpful for actors or other creative business owners, people who, you know, maybe, who run their own business. You know, business strategists like, I want my, I would like, I'm going to invite my business coach on there as well. And, you know, I think that the people that who would come to listen to the podcast, yeah, they're not necessarily my ideal client, but it's not just about my ideal client. It's about a wider community of people that want to get something out of it that I, you know, I find fun and exciting and interesting, and it'll pick up my ideal client along the way, you know. The other thing is obviously also that, because I'm so deeply ingrained in education, you know, many years of working in academia, that I want to bring education and, you know, I do workshops, I do mentorship. So in one part of that, I am speaking to my ideal client. Because my ideal client as a photographer in the educational space. So there is always that kind of part of it as well. The other thing Andrew is, it's not just a strategy. It's like something I've wanted to do for a long time, you know. So it's just conversations.
Andrew Hellmich: True. True. Does it feel to you like this was like a massive fluke like that? This is helping you laughing, as I laugh, and I'm not saying it with any disrespect at all. I think it's amazing. I love that. It's working. But to me, like strategically thinking if I was giving advice as someone that was a headshot photographer with a headshot photography website looking to rank for the London headshot photographer, I would suggest creating content about headshots, content for your ideal clients, whereas you're really just doing what you want to do and adding the content to your headshot photography website. Does it feel like a fluke, like you're smiling, I don't know, because you're saying it wasn't all strategy.
Andrew Hellmich: Are you surprised that it's working the way it has?
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Andrew Hellmich: Fair enough. Fair enough. Tom, I could keep talking to you for hours. I know it's like it's after, I think it's 1 AM where you are at the moment, which is crazy.
Tom Trevatt: Yeah, it's quarter past one.
Andrew Hellmich: Quarter past one. It absolutely blows my mind. For the listener, it is early, well, it's not early morning here. It's quite reasonable. Tom chose this time. And I gave him options, but he said, "No, I'm busy. This is good." I've got, I've got one last question to ask you about the big law firm and pricing for that. Before that, I mentioned your Instagram earlier, but I didn't give out the handle. Where is the best place? Is that the best place for the listener to go to see more of your amazing work?
Tom Trevatt: Yeah, I'd say it's either Instagram or the website, and the Instagram is tomtrevatt.photography. And Trevatt is spelled T-R-E-V-A double T. Some people put an A where it shouldn't be, and the website is just tomtrevatt.com.
Andrew Hellmich: Fantastic. I'll add links to both those in the show notes. Now I know that you talked about being an academic, and you're doing some teaching, you're looking at other things. Do you do anything with other photographers as well, particularly in the headshot space or the business space?
Tom Trevatt: Yeah, I do mentorships. So I've got, currently, four mentees that I'm working with over a period of time. So I offer sort of batches of kind of one to one sessions, either in person or over Zoom that could be working on a specific project, or it could be building a business. It could be starting from scratch, or it could be answering a very set number of questions. I hope people come to me because they've seen something in my work that they want to kind of understand, or, you know, help them build that part of their business. But, you know, obviously people, I had one guy who I worked with recently who asked me a lot about the color science of Canon cameras, and I have no idea about the color science of Canon cameras, so I was unable to answer his questions. But yeah, I love it. It's fantastic. I also do one to one and group workshops in my studio in central London, obviously, because of the few changes of studios recently, I've not done any of those for the last six months, but I will be kicking that off again very soon, and I'm really excited about that, because that is one of the places where my heart is, is helping people. First of all, helping people build businesses. I love that because, for one, it gets people out of the rat race, gets people out the nine to five. And it also means that, you know, people can kind of explore what they love and what they want to, how they want to, you know, succeed and so forth. So helping people do that is really good. And of course, lighting, posing, you know, speaking to models, those kind of things. I really, really love working with people on.
Andrew Hellmich: Do you have a Central London studio at the moment?
Andrew Hellmich: Can I walk past and see your studio, or is it in the bowels of some big building?
Tom Trevatt: So it is currently in a beautiful muse, a cobbled street that used to be all workshops, like workshops in like the 1910s ,1920s..
Andrew Hellmich: Blacksmiths and..
Tom Trevatt: Exactly, like there was one over the road that used to make fans for cars, or something like this. And so the floor is all concrete floor or stone floor that has all got the marks of all the things that have happened over the last 100 years. And then these, like, you know, beautiful red doors that have got glass windows, and the light is absolutely stunning that comes in through there. So you can walk past the studio, but you wouldn't necessarily know the street was there unless you had heard of it, because it's kind of hidden away behind all of the sort of residential areas around Elephant and Castle roundabout, which is sort of Central, South Central London. So, yeah, it's a very easy kind of transport.
Andrew Hellmich: It sounds amazing. It sounds so good.
Andrew Hellmich: So I wanted to ask one last question, and then I'm gonna ask you two but the question I did mention was, when you originally pricing, or what you thought you were going to be pricing that law firm for, was that going to be based on per headshot that you photographed, or did you have a different system for quoting such a large job?
Tom Trevatt: So yeah, it would be a kind of per person number, obviously, if it's a small company, I'd have a higher number per person. If it's a larger company, you just bring it down, because the economy's at scale. But what's actually happened with this law firm is because, because they're lawyers, and they're so busy, we're in there regularly. So you know, we might be in there for a block of five days or three days, and then we have like, 20 people to shoot per day. They come in, they get their hair and makeup, they come and do a shoot. But out of those 20 people, four or five of them cancel last minute. So what that means is that I'm having to pick up at a later date those people again, and lo and behold, I will charge for those days as well.
Andrew Hellmich: So you would still have the base fee, plus the per person. And the base fee, would that change as well, or that just stays fixed?
Tom Trevatt: So there isn't a base fee, it would just be a per person fee, and then I'd add things like a hair and makeup artist, an assistant. Do I need to get equipment for this job?, you know. For the law firm, because it's such a large job, I bought five grand worth of lighting set up for the, and which is left there is essentially, you know, in their storeroom at the moment. So you know, I will go in half an hour, 45 minutes before the first shoot on the first day of our block of five, for example, set it all up in the room and then leave it up for those five days.
Andrew Hellmich: What a beautiful job. That sounds fantastic.
Tom Trevatt: Yeah, it's fantastic. I think they serve us very good lunches as well, so.
Andrew Hellmich: Amazing. And obviously, in that case, you're not having three to four hour conversation, this has got to be more cookie cutter.
Tom Trevatt: This is much more cookie cutter. This is very much I've got a two setups. One that's a, you know, a sort of standing setup, because they want to kind of clean headshots. And then one that's either a kind of leaning on a table, maybe sitting on a stool, sitting on a chair that sort of swaps out and changes, because they want the kind of variety across the whole thing. They've got quite sort of specific specifications that their design team has given me. So yeah, they're working with one of the world's largest design companies as well, which is quite nice to be working so yeah.
Andrew Hellmich: What an amazing job. Can I ask you one last, this is going to be a really dumb question, because it's after 1 AM and you've got to go..
Tom Trevatt: It's all good.
Andrew Hellmich: ..but because we might have to leave the listener without the answer to this one, if it's too involved, how are you getting most of your clients?
Tom Trevatt: I would say it's a good percentage of it is through Google.
Andrew Hellmich: That's really good to hear because we've talked a lot about that.
Tom Trevatt: Yeah, exactly. I still probably get interest from Instagram. I would say that the customer journey could be something along these lines. They will go to Google. They will search for headshot photography London. They will see my profile. They'll go onto my website, then they'll maybe go on to my Instagram. They might go on and see, might see a podcast, they might see something else. But they'll usually have that kind of interaction between the website and the Instagram, because that's the two main places where I do most of my work, or the most the work comes out, and then they'll email me. It may be that they'll go to the Instagram first and then come to the website and email me through the website, I do have a little form in the thing saying, "Where did you find me?" Not everyone fills it in, but, you know, I ask them and I ask them, and it's not an even split between Google and Instagram. It's probably somewhere in the region of 70% Google and then, you know, 20% Instagram, 10% other.
Andrew Hellmich: Got it. That's fantastic. What a great answer. Perfect. Tom, that is a wonderful place to leave this. I'm so glad, so happy that we had the chance to have this conversation. I was delightfully surprised when I did a quick search of our email history. I didn't know that it went back to 2020, or 2021 and then sort of, the picture all sort of came into focus, and we talked about cycling and trips to France and all kinds of stuff. So it's been wonderful to connect. I've had a fantastic time talking to you.
Andrew Hellmich: Your work is incredible. It's no wonder you are the success you are. And massive, massive thanks for coming on and sharing everything that you have.
Tom Trevatt: Thank you. Andrew. It's been fantastic. And yeah, the cycling part of, it's great, isn't it? Not quite as such as an enthusiast as you are, but I'm very jealous of all your trips to France and Spain, listening in.
Andrew Hellmich: Well, hopefully we can catch up on the top of maybe Tourmalet or something one day in July in France.
Tom Trevatt: Let me get a little better at cycling before I do commit.
Andrew Hellmich: Tom, thank you so much, mate, really. It's lovely to have a new friend in London, on the other side of the world.
Tom Trevatt: Absolutely. I'm actually just off to Rome in a couple of weeks to see one of your friends, Matt., Matt Badenoch.
Andrew Hellmich: Matt Badenoch
Andrew Hellmich: Are you doing one of the street photography workshops?
Tom Trevatt: Yeah, I'm doing the Roman street photography ones, yeah.
Andrew Hellmich: Unbelievable. Okay. So what camera you gonna take?
Tom Trevatt: I'm taking two. So it's gonna be the XT5, and I'll take my X100VI as well.
Tom Trevatt: Just one day of each or something like that, you know.
Andrew Hellmich: And are you going to shoot true, in air quotes, "street photography?" Are you going to shoot street portraits? What do you think?
Tom Trevatt: You know, I don't really like taking photographs of people on the street.
Andrew Hellmich: What are you going to do?
Tom Trevatt: Come to the studio. Come to the studio. I just, I, my, like, I've done a bunch of street photography. If you scroll back, like, four years on the old Instagrams, there's street photography there, but it's usually sort of shapes and light and like abstract plays of things and stuff, and maybe a person is in there, if they're kind of intrinsic to the scene. But it's not this kind of, you know, in your face street photography kind of style, but we'll see what Matt can bring out.
Andrew Hellmich: Oh, my God. You know, you know that Matt's going to push you to your limits here.
Tom Trevatt: Exactly, yeah.
Andrew Hellmich: So will you get nervous about doing that, or you pass that now?
Tom Trevatt: Maybe a little bit nervous. For me, it's not, it's not necessarily the kind of ethics of the street photography side of things. It's much more about that, what I find interesting is, is creating something that looks a bit like an abstract sort of set of shapes, and that might look like street photography or might look like kind of cityscape photography. I don't know what it looks like, but there's a number of reasons why I wanted to do this. One is I wanted a trip to Rome that the business could pay for..
Tom Trevatt: ..you know. So that's, that's another badge…ahhh… thing to do. And of course, like spending time with Matt is really good. I went around Notting Hill Carnival with him last year, and that was great. And so I was just like, when it popped up, it was like, that's a no brainer. It's a really easy decision to make. It's not expensive, and it means I just get a lovely trip and meeting lots of new people as well and taking photographs. And, you know, I don't have to go and take photographs of, you know, nonas in rolling dough. Or maybe I will, I don't know, but it'll be a fun time, or whatever happens.
Andrew Hellmich: Take your microphone and your street recorder as well and record some interviews as well. That'd be great.
Tom Trevatt: Absolutely right, yeah, it's a good idea. It's a good idea.
Andrew Hellmich: Tom, mate, again, have fun on that trip. Say hello to Matt, and thanks again so much for your time tonight.
Tom Trevatt: Andrew, thank you so much. It's been great chatting.
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The post 617: Tom Trevatt – How a $200k Contract Changed Everything in His Headshot Business appeared first on Photography Business Xposed - Photography Podcast - how to build and market your portrait and wedding photography business.
